which was
nearly as large as the lounge of this hotel, and furnished in a somewhat
similar manner. There were carved pillars and stained glass domes,
a little fountain, and all those other peculiarities of an Eastern
household.

"Presently, Adderley gave an order to one of his servants, and glanced
at me with that sort of mocking, dare-devil look in his eyes which I
loathed, which everybody loathed who ever met the man. Of course I had
no idea what all this portended, but I was very shortly to learn.

"While he was still looking at me, but stealing side-glances at a
doorway before which was draped a most wonderful curtain of a sort of
flamingo colour, this curtain was suddenly pulled aside, and a girl came
in.

"Of course, you must remember that at the time of which I am speaking
the scandal respecting the mandarin had not yet come to light.
Consequently I had no idea who the girl could be. I saw she was a
Eurasian. But of her striking beauty there could be no doubt whatever.
She was dressed in magnificent robes, and she literally glittered with
jewels. She even wore jewels upon the toes of her little bare feet. But
the first thing that struck me at the moment of her appearance was that
her presence there was contrary to her wishes and inclinations. I have
never seen a similar expression in any woman's eyes. She looked at
Adderley as though she would gladly have slain him!

"Seeing this look, his mocking smile in which there was something
of triumph--of the joy of possession--turned to a scowl of positive
brutality. He clenched his fists in a way that set me bristling. He
advanced toward the girl--and although the width of the room divided
them, she recoiled--and the significance of expression and gesture was
unmistakable. Adderley paused.

"'So you have made up your mind to dance after all?' he shouted.

"The look in the girl's dark eyes was pitiful, and she turned to me with
a glance of dumb entreaty.

"'No, no!' she cried. 'No, no! Why do you bring me here?'

"'Dance!' roared Adderley. 'Dance! That's what I want you to do.'

"Rebellion leapt again to the wonderful eyes, and she started back with
a perfectly splendid gesture of defiance. At that my brutal and drunken
host leapt in her direction. I was on my feet now, but before I could
act the girl said a thing which checked him, sobered him, which pulled
him up short, as though he had encountered a stone wall.

"'Ah, God!' she said. (She was speaking, of